Inside Search
The official Google Search blog
Speak more than one language? So does Google
August 21, 2014
For many people out there, speaking just one language isn’t enough. More than half the world’s population speaks two or more languages—and now Google can keep up.
With the Google Search app on Android, you can speak in multiple languages and Google will understand you no matter which one you choose.
So you can fire off a search for nearby restaurants in English, then dictate a text to your friend in French.
You can use voice search in more than 50 languages and dialects already, but previously you had to change your settings if you wanted to switch languages. Now, you can just make a small, one-time change to your settings, and then you can switch back and forth easily. Google will automatically detect which language you’re using. (For now, you need to stick to one language per sentence though.) You can select up to five languages total—enough to satisfy all but the most advanced polyglots. Whether you get a spoken response from Google depends on the language you use and your query (and you’ll see more languages and features added over time).
Give it a try on your Android device—make sure you have the latest
Google Search App
(version 3.6) from the Play Store. Then, open Google Settings from your device’s apps menu, tap Search & Now -> Voice -> Languages, and select your languages.
Posted by David Eustis, Software Engineer, Android
Translate Community: Help us improve Google Translate!
July 25, 2014
Cross-posted on the
Translate Blog
.
Google Translate helps billions of people communicate and learn new languages, but it could always use a little help. Luckily, there are a lot of multi-lingual people around the world who have offered to pitch in.
We’ve just launched a new
Translate Community
where
language enthusiasts can help us improve translation quality for the 80 languages we support, as well as help us in launching new languages.
In the new community, you'll find options to help with a variety of things, including generating new translations and rating existing ones. Over time, you’ll find more ways to contribute, as well as get more visibility into the impact of your contributions and the activity across the community. We will also localize Community pages to support your preferred display language. If you have feedback and ideas about improving and growing our community, we'd love to hear it so please don't hesitate to submit it via "Send feedback" link on the bottom of the page.
Even if you don’t have time to dedicate towards Translate Community, we want to make it easier for you to make translation corrections when you find a problem. W
e’ve recently made it possible for you to suggest an entirely new translation directly in Google Translate.
When you spot a translation that you’d like to edit, click the "Improve this translation" pencil icon and click "Contribute" to submit your suggestion to us. We plan to incorporate your corrections and over time learn your language a little better.
So help us fine-tune and launch languages you care about: join our
community
efforts and make translations more accurate when you use Google Translate!
Posted by Sveta Kelman, Program Manager, Google Translate
From superheroes to the battle of the battles—the World Cup through search
July 14, 2014
Yesterday, Germany won their fourth world championship, and, over the course of the last month, the world watched them do it—in Brazil, in bars and living rooms around the world, on their phones and laptops and tablets. This World Cup was the most digital, most connected, and most searched global event we've seen to date. There were more than 2.1 billion tournament-related searches on Google, many of which we shared on our
trends hub
.
Looking at the trends from each match, you’ll see some topics that you’d expect to catch the world’s attention, such as top players and highly-anticipated matches. But who would have guessed that there were
10x more searches
in the U.S. for the World Cup than for the NBA Playoffs? Or that
Clint Dempsey
, American soccer star who also has a rap single, had 2x more search interest than Jay-Z? Or that after
Ángel di María's
divine goal against Switzerland, he netted 4x more global searches than his fellow countryman, Pope Francis?
Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa was the most searched goalie in the tournament, but
Tim Howard’s heroics
could hardly be forgotten. German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer not only snagged third place in search, but took home the 2014 Golden Glove award and a World Cup championship to boot.
The
Germany vs. Brazil
semifinal was the most searched match throughout the tournament, leaving many people around the world asking, “What is the biggest win in World Cup history?” Meanwhile, some countries were ready to move on to the next opportunity: after the third place game, Brazilians
searched more
for “World Cup 2018” than for the final game between Argentina and Germany.
No World Cup would be complete without a few surprises—and the creative people of the web were ready to weigh in. Uruguay's Luis Suarez was the most searched player meme, and at the time of the Uruguay-Italy game, there were 20x more searches globally for “Suarez Bite” than for snake, spider, tick, fly, dog and mosquito bites combined.
And if a search Dream Team was created, you’d see these 11 players strutting their stuff on the field. While German star
Mario Götze
didn’t make this list, he was a favorite on search. Even before his goal won it all in the final, he attracted 4x more search attention than Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who presented Germany with the championship trophy.
Beyond the impressive stats on the field, we’ve got some numbers of our own to share:
Our team watched 107+ hours of football (we didn’t even need a water break!) and spent 250+ hours bringing you regular insights from our first ever World Cup trends hub. We hope you enjoyed the excitement of the tournament as much as we did, and for more trends, visit google.com/worldcup or check out our
Google+ album
.
Posted by
Roya Soleimani
, Google Communications Manager, who searched for [
iran vs. argentina
], [
brazil’s 12th player
], and of course [
world cup schedule
] throughout the tournament
“Ok Google” From Any Screen
June 26, 2014
Whether you’re getting the latest news about the World Cup or trying to find showtimes for 22 Jump Street, many of you kick off your search with a simple “Ok Google” from the Google Search app or the Google home screen widget. Now voice search is going to be even easier to get to.
Starting today, you can say “Ok Google” on your Android device whenever the screen is on or your device is charging. If you’re reading your email, browsing the web or using any app that doesn’t actively use the microphone, saying “Ok Google” will get you the answers you need and let you take actions like set an alarm or call a friend.
So the next time you’re in the Google Maps app looking at places to visit for your upcoming trip, just say “Ok Google, what is the weather in Dallas?” and Google will display the weather forecast right on your screen. Once you’ve decided to pack shorts this time around, you can tap the back button to finish what you were doing in the Maps app. So feel free to say “Ok Google” anytime and anywhere—and Google is there to help.
Give it a try on your Android device running KitKat -- make sure you have the updated
Google Search app
(version 3.5). Then find the “Google Settings” icon and go to:
Google Settings -> Search & Now -> Voice -> “Ok Google” Detection and check “From any screen”.
To respond to your voice better, you’ll be prompted to turn on
Audio History
and then say “Ok Google” 3 times. This way, Google will do a better job recognizing your voice and helping out when you ask.
Finally, if you’d like to be able to search even when your device is locked, just enable the “From lock screen” option.
“Ok Google” from any screen will be rolling out on most Android devices running KitKat over the next week, and will initially be available in the US for English speakers.
Check out
this page
to learn more about what you can do with voice search.
Posted by Jakob Foerster, Product Manager, Android
More apps in Google Search—now even easier to use
June 25, 2014
Sometimes the best answer is on a website, and sometimes it's in an app. That’s why since
last December
, when you search with Google on your Android device, you may see results from your apps that let you jump right to relevant content in those apps.
We added more apps with this capability in
April
and
May
, and this week we’ve just enabled our biggest batch yet, including apps like ABC News, Airbnb, AutoTrader, BuzzFeed, CBS, Cookpad, Crackle, Daily Mail Online, Dailymotion, The Economic Times, Fox News, francetv info, Hot Pepper Gourmet, Houzz, KASKUS, Kompas.com, musiXmatch, NDTV, Orbitz, RetailMeNot Coupons, Shazam, Strava, Subito.it, The Guardian, The Washington Post, ViewRanger GPS, Viki, and many
more
. We’re also announcing today that any Android developer can now participate in app indexing, which means that even more of your favorite apps will soon become search-friendly and can organically appear in search results—just like websites.
In addition to seeing more app content in Google search results, you may also notice that the apps now appear differently: app result title links take you directly to the content inside the app. This makes it even easier to access apps from Google. You can tell if a result will take you to an app by looking at the green text just below it. If the green text is the name of an app you've installed and has an app icon next to it, then you’ll know the result will link to an app. If the green text is a website URL, then you know the result will link to a webpage. (Remember that you have to
sign in to Search
in order to see these app results.)
Sometimes you may prefer to go to a website instead of an app, even though you have the app installed. To do this, just tap on the link to the website below the result snippet.
Finally, if you’re looking for new apps to install, you’ll now be able to find more apps through Google. We started
clustering app results together
in the U.S. last December, and now we’ve rolled this feature out globally. For example, if you’re searching for photo editors in Japanese [写真編集], you’ll see results for apps like the following:
Post Content
Posted by Toshiaki Fujiki, Software Engineer
Find music on Google and start playing it directly in your favorite app
June 19, 2014
When you look up musicians and bands on Google, you often want to play their songs right away. Say you’re curious about your favorite pop artist’s latest hits, or you’re with friends chatting about the newest indie rock group and want to play some of their music. Starting today, when you ask Google about a musician, you can simply tap a link to play their music right in one of your installed apps.
This feature is available for Android devices in the U.S. and will work with the following:
We’re working to expand this feature to users worldwide, with their local services like Deezer. We hope all this makes finding and exploring artists and music on Google more fun now that you can listen to the music right away.
Posted by Jason Douglas, Group Product Manager, Google Search
Let Google be your guide to the beautiful game with real-time highlights and trends
June 11, 2014
Celebrate the biggest event in sports with a little help from Google Search. For the first time, you'll find up-to-the minute live scores, team stats, and highlights. You can also explore what's trending with a new World Cup experience powered by Google Trends.
Every match, every highlight
With your phone, tablet or desktop, real-time updates in Google can help you stay on top of the tournament. Simply search for [
world cup
] or [
world cup usa
] to get the team lineup, live scores, and even up to the minute information about attempted goals and player stats. Click or tap or switch between standings, schedules, specific teams, players and more. During live matches, you'll also find a timeline with all major moments so you can follow along with the action.
Also new for this year’s tournament, you don't even have to search to get updates on your favorite teams—just open Google Now. You'll be given an option to start seeing cards with stats about each match that you can tap for more detail.
What’s trending?
For the first time, you'll find a
Google Trends experience
designed specifically to help you explore the players, teams and moments that are capturing the world's attention. Check out google.com/worldcup and explore trends from all 32 competing countries.
On the site, we’ll explore the areas below, and also look at surprising highlights leading up to and after each match.
Sentiment:
Explore how an entire country is feeling—whether optimistic or anxious—as reflected through search trends and public Google+ conversations.
World Focus:
For every match, discover which team is capturing the world's attention in Search.
Top Questions:
Want to know more about a penalty kick? Likely you’re not alone. Check out trending questions from every competing country before and after kickoff.
Rising Players:
Find out who are the players to watch and how they rank in search compared with their teammates.
As you gear up to cheer on your favorite team, we’re excited to help you discover, share and connect with the moments that matter most. For more on the World Cup, visit our
Official Google Blog
.
Posted by Lea Stolowicz, Product Manager
Labels
flight search
images
knowledge graph
local
mobile
quick answers
Search Blog
search quality
search stories
search tips
trends
universal search
webmasters
Archive
2016
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Aug
Jul
Jun
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Sep
Aug
Jul
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Feed
Google
on
Follow @google
Folgen Sie
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.